Women and Girls

Family Planning

Three-day-old Waleed lies wrapped in blankets at his family's home in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah in 2016. Waleed was recognized as the two millionth person born in Gaza, a tiny enclave squeezed between Egypt, Israel, and the Mediterranean Sea. Gaza is just 7.5 miles across at its widest point, and has one of the highest population densities in the world.

Securing women’s right to voluntary, high-quality family planning around the world would have powerful positive impacts on the health, welfare, and life expectancy of both women and their children. It also can affect greenhouse gas emissions.

225 million women in lower-income countries say they want the ability to choose whether and when to become pregnant but lack the necessary access to contraception. The need persists in some high-income countries as well, including the United States where 45 percent of pregnancies are unintended. Currently, the world faces a $5.3 billion funding shortfall for providing the access to reproductive healthcare that women say they want to have.

Carbon footprints are a common topic. Addressing population—how many feet are leaving their tracks—remains controversial despite widespread agreement that greater numbers place more strain on the planet.

Honoring the dignity of women and children through family planning is not about governments forcing the birth rate down (or up, through natalist policies). Nor is it about those in rich countries, where emissions are highest, telling people elsewhere to stop having children. When family planning focuses on healthcare provision and meeting women’s expressed needs, empowerment, equality, and well-being are the result; the benefits to the planet are side effects.

#7

Rank and Results by 2050

59.6 gigatonsreduced CO2

Inappropriate to monetize a human right

Impact: Increased adoption of reproductive healthcare and family planning is an essential component to achieve the United Nations’ 2015 medium global population projection of 9.7 billion people by 2050. If investment in family planning, particularly in low-income countries, does not materialize, the world’s population could come closer to the high projection, adding another 1 billion people to the planet. We model the impact of this solution based on the difference in how much energy, building space, food, waste, and transportation would be used in a world with little to no investment in family planning, compared to one in which the projection of 9.7 billion is realized. The resulting emissions reductions could be 119.2 gigatons of carbon dioxide, at an average annual cost of $10.77 per user in low-income countries. Because educating girls has an important impact on the use of family planning, we allocate 50 percent of the total potential emissions reductions to each solution—59.6 gigatons a piece.

References

access to contraception…unintended pregnancies: Singh, Susheela, Jacqueline E. Darroch, and Lori S. Ashford. Adding It Up: The Costs and Benefits of Investing in Sexual and Reproductive Health 2014. New York, NY: Guttmacher Institute and United Nations Population Fund, 2014.

building resilience [to climate impacts]: Mutunga, Clive. Population, Reproductive Health, and International Adaptation Finance. Washington, D.C.: Population Action International, 2013; UNFPA. State of the World Population 2015: Shelter from the Storm. New York: United Nations Population Fund, 2015.